Modules

401 Jurisprudence and legal theory

Prerequisite – 122 Introduction to the common law

The nature of jurisprudence: methodology, analysis, theory and the idea of definition, the relevance of language and ideology
Legal positivism and its critics: the imperative theory, Hart–Fuller debate, Dworkin’s criticism of positivism, Kelsen (including the use of Kelsenian principles in revolution cases).
Moral theory and the law: the history of natural law, Finnis’s natural law theory, liberalism and the Hart–Devlin debate, moral rights, utilitarianism and its critics, utilitarianism and the economic analysis of law.
Legal reasoning: Dworkin’s theory of law as integrity, Dworkin’s ‘one right answer’ thesis, MacCormick’s positivist account, Hohfeld’s analysis of legal rights.
Social theory and critical accounts of law: functionalism and Llewellyn’s ‘law jobs’ theory, Marxist theories of law and state, Weber and legal rationality, the American Critical Legal Studies movement, feminist jurisprudence.
A study in depth of a text prescribed by the examiners on which there will be one compulsory question in the examination. For 1999 and 2000 the prescribed text is Hart, HLA, The Concept of Law, (second edition).